Thursday, June 30th, 2011 at 3:40 pm  |  69 responses

The Lockout Has Arrived

How long could it last?

by Ryne Nelson

The union chief has been anticipating a lockout for a while. And we’ve known it would happen at some point. But when reality strikes, and news of the NBA lockout became official this afternoon, we couldn’t help but shake our head.

Negotiations will continue throughout the summer, as the Players Union has decided not to decertify. CBS Sports‘ Ken Berger confirms that “no further bargaining sessions scheduled, though negotiations can continue as long as union stays together.”

We’ve detailed much of the specifics behind the CBA proposals, but as Yahoo!‘s Adrian Wojnarowski tweets, “In the end, this lockout comes down to one thing: Can the hardline small (and some big) market owners keep the rest on board for hard cap?”

Stick around, something tells us we won’t be missing a ’11-12 season following a finish like this.

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  • Ryan

    http://deadspin.com/5816870/

    Read this link about how losing money is all part of the plan for NBA owners.

  • http://jayemmbee23.tumblr.com Clutch Performer

    kenny smith on nbatv said something i agree with. why dont you have MJ in on those meetings? hes the only person to be on both sides of the table as player and now owner. he would have a unique perspective from both sides and see where both sides are asking for too much.

  • BIGBLUE

    THIS IS BULLSH#T. i mean i understand that the players and owners are just trying to look out for themselves, who isin’t? but the fans of the game are clearly the biggest losers in this situation.

  • Zoom

    Wow I blame Stern he just making the NBA stupid. F you Stern !

  • http://www.triplejunearthed.com/dacre Dacre

    anyone looked at nba . com today?… this lockout stuff reduced the nba flagship home page to a one page ‘poke in the eye’ to fans all over the globe…. thus the titanic sinks…

  • http://www.triplejunearthed.com/dacre Dacre

    Just read through that article on deadspin (ryan a few posts above has the link) and it makes a lot of sense – the creative accounting schtick – team owners are all about revenue and if they can show ‘a loss’ figure on the books in furtherance of making more money down the road it’s no surprise.
    —–
    Reading through that article highlighted one thing I didn’t realise, players wages are fully tax deductable…?!?!? AMAZING. THATS WHY THEY ARE HAPPY TO GIVE BALLOONING CONTRACTS TO PLAYERS THAT FAIL.

  • http://www.facebook.com/joe.l.brewer3 BlackPhantom

    ……..NBA.Com is joking right now, right??

  • Ronald

    They arent joking BP. They arent allowed to show any images of the players etc legally.

  • http://www.fiba.com Darksaber

    Cue FIBA-President rubbing his hands together à la Mr. Burbs while wearing an evil grin, “excellent. Get me Dirk on the phone, time for him to extend his stay in Deutschland this summer.”

  • http://www.fiba.com Darksaber

    Greetings from the beach at Koh Samui, SlamFam. Sad to see the lock is now officially on, hope games resume at some point this year.
    Hey, still space on the FIBA bandwagon peeps. Some big national team contests coming up, wonder how hard AUS, SRB, GER, ITA, FRA & Co are campaigning for Bogut, Dirk, Bargnani, Milicic, Parker, Deng etc. to join their teams in training camps this summer. Should be fun.

  • http://www.slamonline.com Jahmai

    After reading alot of reports on this matter, I have a feeling we might not see a single game of the 2011-12 season. What a f*cking nightmare, I can’t imagine the feeling I will have when it’s October and there’s absolutely nothing happening. Well, time to completely turn myself over to the NFL. Fly Eagles Flyyyyy!!

  • Ronald

    I am suprised that the NBA relinquished guranteed contracts. A lot of the problems stem from such contracts. And contracting teams like Clips/Wolves is a stupid idea. Like that would fly with the players. If anything teams like NOH and the ATL should be contracted.

  • http://dsjfklf.com Jukai

    Ronald: It’s because the players (unwisely) set ALL their focus on the guarenteed contract stuff instead of focusing on wages and the cap and revenue sharing.
    The NBA players union just seems a bit more unwise and unwilling than the NFL players union

  • http://slamonline.com Allenp

    Thanks for that story Ryan. Very informative.

  • Jacqueline Mitchell

    This whole situation is unbelievably sad and unecessary. It could have been settled months ago.

  • http://slamonline.com Allenp

    The link to the story on ESPN is also very good as well. Puts things in perspective.

  • http://slamonline.com Allenp

    Guaranteed contracts work just fine in baseball. They work fine for Fortne 500 companies. They work fine for your average television media outlet.
    Don’t be fooled, the reason why the League is pushing for non-guaranteed contracts is because they want built in protection for when their employees screw up horribly. Where is a player’s protection when they sign too low a contract, like what Scottie Pippen or Magic Johnson once did? I would support partially guaranteed contracts, if there is a clause that allows for larger payouts if a player OVER performs under his contract.

  • celts4ever

    noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

  • http://Facebook prince wale

    this crap is messin’ da world up…nw i feel da the world comin to an end….man!!! you beta , thought-out before somthin’ crazi happens…. do you av any idea? huh? selfish owners!!!

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